No Link Between Speech-in-Noise Perception and Auditory Sensory Memory - Evidence From a Large Cohort of Older and Younger Listeners.
Roberta Bianco, Maria Chait
PMID 37828868WHAT IT FOUND
Auditory sensory memory ability did not predict how well people understood speech in noise.
This held true for both older and younger listeners. Poorer speech-in-noise scores were linked only to age and signs of binaural processing difficulties, not to memory capacity.
Key findings
01There was no significant correlation between speech-in-noise reception and auditory sensory memory or visual-sequence memory performance across the full sample.
02In regression analyses, speech-in-noise performance was predicted only by age and binaural/headphones test performance, with auditory sensory memory tasks adding no significant variance.
03While older participants performed worse on speech-in-noise and auditory sensory memory tasks compared to younger participants, the two deficits did not share variability within individuals.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was conducted online, so environmental noise and equipment quality were not fully controlled, though a binaural screen was used to account for some of this. Hearing sensitivity was not measured directly (no audiograms), so participants with undiagnosed hearing loss may have been included. The sample size was large, but the age ranges were narrow, which may limit the detection of subtle age-related trends. Self-reported 'no hearing problems' may exclude individuals with mild, undiagnosed losses that affect speech-in-noise perception.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the NIHR UCLH BRC Deafness and Hearing Problems Theme, and Alzheimer's Research UK.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of a link between auditory sensory memory and speech-in-noise perception as evidence that memory plays no role in listening. This study specifically tested low-level sensory memory using non-speech tone patterns. Higher-level working memory and executive function, which were not the focus here, are still known to support speech understanding in complex environments.